During the 2010/2011 NHL season, Raffi Torres played left winger for the Vancouver Canucks, wearing number 13. His salary for the time he spent on the ice that season was reportedly $1,000,000. The total team salary for the Vancouver Canucks was reportedly $70,975,000, so his salary was about 1.4% of the team's total reported payroll. The median salary for a player on the Vancouver Canucks was $2,250,000, while the average salary was $2,729,807. During the 80 games that he played that season, he scored 14 goals and had 15 assists - a total of 29 points. Dividing his reported salary by the number of games played, we find he earned $12,500.00 per game. Raffi Torres had a plus/minus of 4, 78 PIM (penalties in minutes), 3 PP (power play goals), 0 SH (short-handed goals), 4 GWG (game winning goals), and took 115 shots. He had a shooting percentage in the 2010/2011 season of 12.20%. If we want to evaluate his performance strictly on offense, we can divide his salary by the number of goals scored, as well as by the number of points (goals plus assists). His salary per goal scored was $71,429 and his salary per point was $34,483.

What about taxes? The hockey season is split between two calendar years, however, with a annual U.S.-based salary of $1,000,000 he can expect to pay around $325,284 in federal income taxes. That is about the same dollar amount of tax as the tax paid by 40 median high school teachers, 45 median police officers, or 64 median fire fighters. After paying the IRS, he would have $674,716 left over, although he still may have to pay city or state tax.

About the author

Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".